The American legal system relies heavily on both written laws (statutes) and judicial opinions that apply these laws to resolve particular legal disputes. In resolving these disputes, lawyers arguing for their clients produce written documents, such as motions, briefs, and so forth arguing for their clients. These written documents commonly cite, or reference, relevant opinions, statutes, and scholarly articles, collectively known as legal authority, supporting the arguments they make.
The courts that receive these documents generally require that the legal authority be cited using very specific formatting rules or citation standards. One common set of citation standards is A Uniform of System of Citation, widely known as the Bluebook. Many U.S. law schools have now standardized on the ALWD Citation Manual, published by Aspen Law & Business. The complexity of the rules is fairly high and it is generally a time-consuming task not only to initially format the cites according to the standards, but also to verify compliance with the standards during proofing of the document prior to filing with a court. Moreover, various courts or jurisdictions have their own specific rules, which means that lawyers frequently need to be familiar with more than one set.
In recent years, computer tools have emerged to save some time in the citation process. For example, a software application, called “Shepard's StyleCheck™” marketed by Reed Elsevier plc, checks word processing documents for Bluebook stylistic errors. The program, which operates as a separate stand-alone application on a desktop or laptop computer, receives a word-processing document as input and automatically generates a written report that lists potential errors in the citation formats found in the document. Users manually review the report and edit the legal document to correct any citation errors. Another stand-alone program, “CiteIt™” by Sidebar Software, Inc., allows users to capture excerpts of case law during online research into a notes file and stores these excerpts in combination with various full and short citation formats. A user can then select the excerpts and the appropriate citation form for insertion into a word-processing document.